Does the duration of the marriage impact a Louisville divorce? Kentucky Family Law establishes a different level of property division and other factors when the underlying marriage lasted longer than 10 years. In shorter marriages, property division, while equitable under Kentucky law, may seem to be more evenly split. A longer marriage may justify a different division of property, based upon economic factors, orders of maintenance (spousal support), health, as well as the individual needs of each party.
Maintenance is usually in place to provide a former spouse with the opportunity to become self-sustaining. In longer marriages, especially when the earning power of one spouse is substantially less than the other, or if a career was left behind in order to raise children or manage the household, maintenance may be a bit higher, and duration can be a bit longer.
In this way, a longer-term marriage may lengthen the duration of permanent maintenance orders, or even the amount. When an underlying Kentucky marriage lasts less than 10 years, a potential starting point of maintenance negotiations in a divorce might be roughly half the length of the marriage. So if the couple’s marriage lasted 7 years, the Court may give the recipient of maintenance 3.5 years to become self-sustaining.
If the duration of the marriage was more than 10 years, several additional factors will come into play. The length of permanent maintenance orders may be increased to reflect the longer period of the marriage. There are not as many cases today (when compared to 20 years ago) where maintenance will continue until the recipient of support either remarries or passes away.
Longer duration may also impact the division of marital property and other economic assets such as retirement accounts and pensions. “Equitable” distribution of marital assets in these cases may be weighed a bit higher to one party in order to balance other economic factors, and provide financial sustainability. The health, education, career skills, experience and economic viability of each party will play a more significant role when the duration of the marriage was more than 10 years.
It is important to note periods of separation during the term of the marriage can have an impact on all of these calculations from the Judge’s perspective. Multiple separations may affect the Court’s perspective and perceptive of the duration factor in these calculations. We invite you to review the strong recommendations of our former clients and the legal industry and contact Dodd & Dodd or call 502-584-1108 to schedule an appointment with one of our attorneys.
